US stocks opened muted on Friday as a holiday-shortened week and downbeat month drew to a close. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange resumed trading after a data center glitch.
The Nasdaq Composite led stocks slightly upward on Black Friday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by a bit more than 0.2%.
The CME Group restored operations after a long outage disrupted live trading in futures and options. Individual stocks traded without problems. The disruption lasted until 8:30 a.m. ET when CME resolved the outage.
Stocks rebounded sharply this week as traders bet on a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December. Renewed faith in AI trade boosted tech names. Wall Street indexes faced a losing month due to a cooldown in megacap tech names.
The Dow and S&P 500 were slightly lower for the month, ending a six-month winning streak. The Nasdaq is set to snap a seven-month run of gains. Analysts are rolling out stock-market predictions for 2026, with forecasts ranging from 7,500 to 8,000 for the S&P 500.
The stock market closed early on Friday at 1 p.m. ET, with no major earnings or economic data releases scheduled for the day. Stock reactions to Q3 earnings have been severe, with companies beating earnings estimates seeing a modest stock price increase.
Seasonal hiring for the holiday shopping season is muted this year, with layoff announcements and a creeping unemployment rate. Hiring plans are at their lowest levels in over a decade, despite high interest in seasonal work.
US stocks opened with light gains to close the holiday-shortened week and month. The Nasdaq Composite led stocks higher on Black Friday, with a 0.4% gain. Markets made a strong rebound this week on bets of a Fed rate cut and renewed AI trade faith.
The CME Group gradually restored operations after a technical glitch caused a trading halt. Markets in the US and worldwide were impacted, with US Treasurys and crude futures affected. Futures on major indices were steady when trading resumed.
Gold edged higher for a fourth straight month on expectations of another US interest rate cut. The trading halt on the CME affected liquidity in precious metals markets. Gold was near $1,160 an ounce, up over 2% for the week.
Commodities trading was halted due to a data center issue affecting CME futures. The issue led to a trading pause with uncertainty on when other impacted markets would resume. Major futures remained steady when trading eventually restarted.
Read more at Yahoo Finance: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq open muted as rocky month draws to an end, CME restores trading